Tag: Hannan Meats

Major UK food award for Peter Hannan of Hannan Meats

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Northern Ireland food innovator Peter Hannan, managing director of the multi-award winning Hannan Meats, has won one of the most prestigious awards for his innovation and enterprise in food and business from the BBC.

Mr Hannan, a Food NI board member,  gained the Derek Cooper Award at the annual BBC Food and Farming Awards. Named after the programme’s first presenter, the award is for the individual or organisation whose work has brought about real change in our relationship with food.

The award aims to recognise the often unsung heroes who’ve made a real difference to knowledge and appreciation of good food. The winner is decided by the expert judging panel.

The BBC Food and Farming Awards were launched in 2000, to mark the 20th anniversary of Radio 4’s The Food Programme. The awards aim “to honour those who have done most to promote the cause of good food”.

The first judging team included Derek Cooper, the founding presenter of the Food Programme. Subsequent judges have come from a cross-section of the food world – chefs, academics, retail analysts, writers and campaigners.

Mr Hannan established Hannan Meats in 1991 as a catering butchery business. The company, which is based at Moira in county Armagh, has pioneered the dry-aging of beef and lamb in the world’s biggest complex of Himalayan salt chambers and also the curing of bacon using sugar pit and other novel techniques.

He has established Glenarm Shorthorn beef from county Antrim as among the world’s best and tastiest.

The company sources, produces and supplies a range of exceptional meat products for high-end restaurants and five-star hotels as well as selected retailers in Britain and exports to Michelin star restaurants especially in France.

In addition, Hannan Meats has won widespread acclaim for outstandingly tasty meats. The company has won more UK Great Taste Awards than any other producer in the UK and Ireland including two supreme champion award, the only company in the UK and Ireland to achieve this coveted accolade twice.

 

Great Taste Awards 2017 On The Horizon

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Article by Michele Shirlow MBE for Farm Week

The annual Great Taste Awards will soon be upon us. I expect that we will hear from the UK Guild of Fine Food which local food and drink companies have met and exceeded the exacting standards set for the three categories on gold stars and the Top 50 UK Foods within the next two weeks.

The Supreme Champion title, won last year by Hannan Meats in Moira, Co Down, will be revealed at the beginning of September and ahead of the Speciality and Fine Food Fair at Olympia in London.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Food NI will be showcasing the best of Northern Ireland food and drink at the event. We are currently encouraging local companies to be part of this important presentation at the show which attracts thousands of trade buyers, making it a great route into the strategically important marketplace in Great Britain.

The Great Taste Awards is a hugely important competition for our companies and also for the wider Northern Ireland food and drink industry. And we’ve a great track record in the influential competition. Northern Ireland companies have won the supreme title on three separate occasions – McCartney’s Butchers and Deli in 2011 and Hannan Meats twice – 2012 and 2016 – and the only UK producer to do so. Hannan has also won more gold stars than any other company in the UK and Ireland. I am confident he can secure a hat trick, if not this year, in the not too distant future.

A host of smaller companies have also done extremely well in the coveted awards and have succeeded in securing prestigious business in Britain. Abernethy Butter of Dromore, for instance, gained three gold stars last year and is now on the menus of top hotels and restaurants in Britain.

The company, run by Will and Allison Abernethy, specialises in hand crafted butter, has also just announced business with the Spa Hotel in historic Tunbridge Wells and Yummy Stilton of Cropley Bishop, home of stilton cheese. Other local companies which have won three stars in recent years include Baronscourt Estate Venison from Omagh, Ewing’s Seafood of Belfast, Fermanagh’s Fivemiletown Cheese and Genesis Bakery of Magherafelt. Hundreds of other small companies have also gained gold stars, far too many to list here. They all merit great praise for the quality of their products and for their willingness to benchmark these with others from around the British Isles.

Other companies which have done well in the Great Taste Awards have gone forward to win major competitions in Britain and beyond. Mash Direct in Comber is a good example of a medium sized company which has pitched its products and overall professionalism against larger and often multinational competitors, winning the very prestigious UK Food Manufacturing Excellence Award last year and also the award for innovation at the big SIAL international food show in the Middle East. Moy Park in Craigavon also won the UK Food Manufacturing Excellence Award  the year preceding Mash Directs success. The Quiet Man Irish Whiskey from Derry won no fewer than four silver awards at this month’s International Spirits Challenge in London. Other local drinks companies such as Co Antrim’s Old Bushmills Whiskey, Shortcross Gin, Echlinville Distillery, Tempted Cider and MacIvor’s Cider has also been successful in international events.

As I mentioned earlier, taking part in major awards such as the Great Taste Awards is an important way companies can benchmark their products and processes against competitors particularly in Britain and RoI and improve their competitiveness. It helps improve business and also showcases Northern Ireland as a source of great food and drink, the latter being one of Food NI’s objectives in our Taste the Greatness action plan. Good luck to all the NI entrants awaiting award results.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Northern Irish steak from Hannan Meats among the world’s best

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Hannan Meats has won two gold medals at the industry’s most prestigious and influential World Steak Challenge in London. The awards consolidates the Northern Ireland company’s standing as among the world’s very best and most innovative steak producers.

Based at Moira in county Down, Hannan Meats gained golds for its Glenarm Shorthorn fillet and ribeye steaks from a distinguished international panel of expert judges.

Hannan Meats also collected two golds in last year’s awards for its steak that’s aged in the world’s biggest complex of Himalayan salt ageing chambers at its factory in Northern Ireland.

The company, founded and run by Peter Hannan, among the most respected figures in the international meat industry, has twice won the supreme champion title in the UK Great Taste Awards, the most recent being last year when it gained the top award for another Glenarm Shorthorn beef.

Hannan Meats was among entries from 17 countries in five continents and more than 100 meat products. Competition was intense. Each steak was put through a series of stringent tests by the exacting  judging panel.

The World Steak Challenge is organised by William Reed Business Media (WRBM) – publisher of international news website GlobalMeatNews.com and UK trade publication Meat Trades Journal. WRBM also is behind a number of renowned global competitions, including the World’s 50 Best Restaurants and the International Wine Challenge.

The idea behind the competition is to offer producers of steak from across the globe the chance to benchmark their products against their competitors, and to offer a platform for sales of top-quality steak to be increased both within domestic markets, but also overseas.

In addition to this, the challenge also aims promote steak to consumers and celebrate the joy and benefits of eating it as part of a healthy balanced diet.

The winners were announced at a VIP reception and BBQ at the Magic Roundabout in London